In the coming weeks. At the same time, I will indicate what progress my Department, which has been working on this for some six months now, is making on the complex issues of how we improve our legal powers in this area, which we need to do. That does take a certain amount of time because we need to get it right. In the interim, we will do everything we can. I have already put out a notice to all carriers reiterating and repeating our rights under international law that no munitions would be carried without the exp…

As Minister for Transport, I have responsibility for policy and overall funding with regard to public transport. However, I am not involved in the day-to-day operation of public transport services. The statutory responsibility for securing the provision of public passenger transport services nationally rests with the National Transport Authority, NTA, including the management of the PSO programme. Bus Éireann operates several PSO routes along the M3 motorway corridor as part of its direct award contracts with the N…

I accept what the Deputy is saying. I happen to be meeting with Bus Éireann in the coming days and I will raise directly with its representatives this issue the Deputy has raised. I will make a couple of points. One issue we have is we have seen success, particularly in the last two years, in public transport numbers. Last year they went up 23% nationally and this year 12% so far. Part of what we are seeing is a phenomenal success due to fare reductions and other measures. We need to build on that. There are real c…

In response to the three Deputies, we have mechanisms to encourage - and the NTA delivers - so-called "enhancements". Where we find there is a service under pressure and a bus is full, we can fund and provide for additional buses. That is different from what I heard Deputies Tully and Smith talking about and I take the point. Are we seeing buses full with relatively short-hop passengers, to Navan and Kells, meaning that passengers to Cavan are frozen out? I will raise that with Bus Éireann when I speak to it. It is…

As I am sure the Deputy will be aware, the National Transport Authority's Local Link rural transport programme is managed and administered in Cork by the Local Link offices in Bantry and Fermoy. I am pleased to confirm that I have secured Exchequer funding under budget 2025 for the roll-out of even more new and enhanced bus services throughout rural Ireland next year. This includes funding for Connecting Ireland, and new town services. In Cork, the NTA has advised that it plans to implement new and enhanced bus ser…

On Connecting Ireland and the Local Link services, this new massive expansion in rural public transport has primarily been delivered by Local Link services. Bus Éireann has had a role too but Local Link has been central. I am glad that hopefully now NTA has agreed contract terms with all the Local Link providers for the next phase of their contract. We have also commissioned a review of the Local Link system. It shows its strengths such as community, bottom-up knowledge at local level and a variety of services that…

I thank the Deputy for his kind words. I was only thinking of him yesterday. I happened to be reading up on all the various parliamentary questions and so on. I was reading an update on the Castlemartyr and Killeagh bypasses. Hopefully in the not-too-distant future we are going to get where we want with that detailed report on addressing traffic congestion in those two villages. The Deputy and I have had very good engagement over the last four years on that and other issues. I think he is right about Local Link and…

I first should clarify that both the 30 and X30 bus services are part of Expressway, a commercial branch of Bus Éireann. Expressway services receive no State subvention, and decisions regarding service enhancements are based on commercial viability. The National Transport Authority is responsible for the licensing of public bus passenger services under the provisions of the Public Transport Regulation Act 2009, and neither I nor my Department have a role in this process. Bus Éireann fully acknowledges the concerns …

To Deputy Tully, the uncertainty of such a bus, particularly going to the airport where people might be nervous, is unacceptable. They are told to go earlier but the airport times have lengthened in recent years. That imposes a cost and burden on the consumer, so we need greater certainty. The same applies to the questions put by Deputies Smith and Wynne. Bus Éireann is working well as a company and the passenger numbers are way ahead of projections, but we need to continue to evolve and get greater efficiency and …

I thank the Deputy very much. I know the area he is referring to well. As Minister for Transport, I have responsibility for overall policy and Exchequer funding for the national roads programme. Once funding arrangements have been put in place with Transport Infrastructure Ireland, TII, under the Roads Acts, 1993 to 2015, and in line with the national development plan, NDP, the operation and management of individual national roads is a matter for TII, in conjunction with the local authorities concerned. TII ultimat…

As it happens, I am meeting the NTA later this morning so I will raise this and will push for it to look at south Dublin. On another point, the Deputy is right about focusing on making it safe for our children to take the bus, walk or cycle to school. On days like today, when traffic tends to be bad and the weather is not great, 30% of the morning rush-hour traffic is children being driven to school. In many ways, that is very attractive for parents as they are chatting and they are in a safe space with their child…

I do know the area. My grandfather grew up there. We had a family farm just on the other side of Glounthane and I absolutely accept what the Deputy is saying about the impact of noise, particularly. It is often forgotten about or it is slightly abstract but it has a huge impact on people’s quality of life and health so it is a real issue. I will read the response I have because it is important to put on the record where the responsibility lies before coming back to the Deputy. Once funding arrangements for national…

No. I will ask my private secretary to bring a copy.

I am interested in whether the resurfacing as part the Dunkettle upgrade has had an impact. That is why mapping is important to measure before and after and I do not know whether that extends as far east. I mentioned the Ringaskiddy development because it is likely to increase the volume of traffic and, potentially, heavy goods vehicles, which are even noisier in terms of their weight they carry. That is the only reason I mentioned that project. I do not expect the response would be that there would be a 10 km barr…

The Government's policy has not changed. As set out in the Government's policy statement on the importation of fracked gas, the Government does not support the importation of fracked gas. Ireland is committed to halving greenhouse gas emissions by 2030 and being carbon neutral by 2050. In future most of our energy needs will be met by renewable energy, which will be the anchor of our energy security. The only consideration by this Government of LNG facilities is in the context of energy security. The Government doe…

I believe it is possible for us - if we require a facility - to set conditions in a State-led facility for security only, that it would only be non-fracked gas that would be held. That is possible as one of the conditions that a State-led facility might be set out. There is no Trojan horse here. People have completely misunderstood that amendment. It was purely technical in nature. It had been a long time coming in making sure that as we change the foreshore licensing system towards a new planning system that there…

This has been a long, drawn-out process, because it is important to get it right. The original study started in 2021. We approached SEPA, a consultancy company which did a lot of detailed analysis to the end of this decade. Furthermore, when we had agreed our energy security paper, we commissioned GNI to look at various options such as onshore, offshore, gas caverns and so on. They came back to us saying that it likely would not be until the next decade that a facility would be available and that it would have cert…

There is no game here and nobody is being taken for a fool. Not only am I not naive, I have a record going back 30 years of absolute commitment to climate action in our country, particularly in the area of keeping fossil fuels in the ground. For decades, we have campaigned and worked in that area and nothing has changed in that regard. The Government position has not changed. The Deputy has heard no one from the Government side say that we are going back on the energy security strategy statement, which said we woul…

The key document here is our energy security paper from November last year, which looked at a whole range of different risks to energy security. That is the place where we say that the only facility we could or would introduce is one that is purely temporary, strategic and security oriented. In those circumstances, where the project is State-led, I believe conditions could be set as regards the amount of security to be provided, not having fracked gas and so on. I am absolutely confident that is deliverable and doa…

I take the Deputy's point that LNG potentially has the same emissions as coal. We will not be increasing our importation of LNG gas. That is agreed. We are not going to breach our climate change targets through any of this. That is an absolute given. That will hold firm in any court, in any debate and in any government, whether a future government or this Government. With a State-commissioned facility, we would be within our legal rights to say we would like a given amount of security, for the facility to operate w…